Luminescence color tuning of Ce3+, Tb3+ and Eu3+ codoped and tri-doped BaY2Si3O10 phosphors via energy transfer

Abstract

A series of single-component blue-, white- and orange-emitting phosphors have been developed based on the BaY₂Si₃O₁₀ host via the Ce³⁺/Eu³⁺, Tb³⁺/Eu³⁺, Ce³⁺/Tb³⁺, and Ce³⁺/Tb³⁺/Eu³⁺ couples and the energy transfer among them has been discussed in detail. A terbium bridge model via Ce³⁺–Tb³⁺–Eu³⁺ energy transfer has been studied and verified. The phase structures, photoluminescence (PL) properties, decay curves, PL thermal stability, and the energy transfer mechanism were investigated in this paper. The emission colors of the phosphors can be tuned from blue (0.1501, 0.0805) to white (0.3230, 0.3140) and eventually to orange (0.4496, 0.3537) through the corresponding Ce³⁺–Tb³⁺–Eu³⁺ energy transfer. Moreover, thermal quenching luminescence results reveal that BaY₂Si₃O₁₀:Ce³⁺,Tb³⁺,Eu³⁺ exhibits good thermal stability. The above results indicate that the phosphors may be potentially used as single-component multi-color or white emission phosphors for application in white light emitting diodes (w-LEDs).